Updated payment processing, checkout, shipping, and catalog database.

We started developing a new design for the entire e-commerce tools in mid 2001. We spent a lot of time reviewing competitive products and researching e-commerce usability studies. One study indicated that nearly 25 percent of shoppers at e-commerce web sites are unable to successfully make a purchase because of the design of the site. As we developed requirements for our new e-commerce tools we tried to learn from this research. At the end of 2002 we are 18 months into this project with at least another six months to go. We have broken the project into phases. Let me review what was accomplished in 2002. (You will notice that these phases are in the reverse order of the purchasing process.)

Upgrade the payment process. The first step was to revamp and improve how the online payments were processed. This included the ability to accept payments through Pay Pal, a major online payment method. Pay Pal is a great way to get started in e-commerce without having to have a merchant account or a credit card gate way. It is also very useful for those selling on eBay.

New checkout process. The new check out process streamlined the checkout process, making it more stable, easy to navigate, and faster. We implemented many of the design suggestions learned during our research into e-commerce usability. More options were provided to customize the checkout pages.

New shipping options. A number of new options were provided to shipping methods. One of the major upgrades was the ability to link directly to UPS to determine the exact shipping charges.

Catalog and shopping cart database revamped. The underlying database for the catalog and shopping cart was changed. This step is preparatory to future enhancements to the look and feel of the catalog. Because of these changes, it is now possible to analyze abandoned shopping carts This is possible because as soon as a shopping cart is created, the data is stored in the database. Even if the shopper later decides not to complete the purchase, the information is not discarded. You can now see where the order was abandoned, in the shopping cart or a step in the check out process. For example, if you see that many orders are abandoned on the shipping page it might indicate that your shipping charges are scaring customers away.

New start up page in page builder.

This is one of my favorite changes this year. The system will now remember the last 10 pages I worked on in EZ-Pagebuilder. I often work on several pages at a time. Prior to this change I had to search for the page I was working on. I use directories a lot to organize my pages and images. Locating the last several pages I worked on was often very frustrating. Now, I can go to the page in one click. This is especially helpful when using a modem to access the internet.

The start up page is also much easier for a novice who is new to EZ-NetTools or the internet. Many new people have no idea what an index page is. Now, the system gives an explanation and defaults to bringing up the index page.

There is also the use of template pages. This feature was added a little early so not all the features we want are there yet. We hope to develop an entire library of template pages that will help you develop pages quickly and also give you some ideas about how to build different types of web pages in the tools. Look for more templates in the future.

Affiliate tools

The affiliate tools are the sleeper tools of the year. With the affiliate tools it is possible to pass dynamic information within and between websites. There are many uses for this capability and we are finding additional ones all the time. Through this tool a website can recognize when someone has been referred to your site from another site, either another EZ-NetTools site or any website. As a result the website can have a text block that will dynamically display the name of the referring web site. Shortly the catalog system will have the ability to track if the person referred also placed an order. Consequently, you can reward those affiliated sites for the referrals.

Other, less obvious enhancements.

There have been numerous other enhancements that are not obvious. For example, we have completely updated the operating systems of our servers. We did this without disrupting service. This is like upgrading the windows operating system on your PC with out having to reboot or exit the programs your are using.

We have also hardened the security of online transactions. This was done in conjunction and in addition to the security enhancements implemented by Authorize net.

For a more complete list of the enhancement made during the year and when they occurred visit the "Updates" page of the Member Help site.